In part one, I shared our 2016-2017 world history textbook is Robin Walker’s When We Ruled and a little about why I made the decision to use this text. Today, I’d like to share a bit more on why and how we are using his amazing work.

Why We Are Using: Is Black History Slave History?

This photo summarizes how history is taught to African-Americans:

Now, it is bad enough that this is the opening act in U.S. History, but World History? So many questions remain like:

What were “slaves” doing in Africa before slavery?

If they were in Africa, were they really slaves?

If they were not slaves, what were they doing?

If Africa had so many people with dark skin in the country, how did they become slaves and why are “white” people there now?

When did people with lighter skin come to Africa?

If darker skin people were in Africa and the bible we read seemed to take place just “above Africa”, how did Jesus and the others become “white”?

Were people in Egypt “white” or “black”?

If “white”, how did they get that way, evolution?

What did that make Moses?

What color were the people when the Hebrews, Joseph, Jacob, and Abraham went to Egypt?

What happened and who built those pyramids?

As you could see, working backward from where we are today generates many questions that need to be answered. Just working from slavery in America to today only provides one narrative, and that’s HIS-story. Needless-to-say, HIS-story usually goes like this:

African’s were savage people that were running around uncivilized in Africa, so Europeans started off with good intentions by giving them Christianity and brought them here to America like immigrants.

The early immigration plan went too far, and some evil people misused and mistreated those Africans, and made them slaves and treated them really bad.

Remember, they were savages. Therefore, the “bad treatment” they received in the “New World” was still probably better than their lives in Africa because after all, their own African people sold them to the Europeans anyway.

It was all God’s plan for without slavery, Black people would not know Christ.

Overall, without coming to America, African’s would still be running through the jungle with spears and no clothes because they never advanced to be civilized like other “races”.

Glory, Glory, Halleluiah, his untruth keeps marching on…school year after school year.

Looks like culture theft was going on long before jazz, rock and roll and hip-hop!

How We Are Using

As I stated previously, we are using the study guide as to set the pace for our lessons. Each day, my 15 and 12-year-olds have a portion to read and in some cases, write an essay on. As a matter of fact, I’m not going to go too deep into this as we will soon be giving an example! As their midterm final, they are to:

Choose any book in the bible.

Find a bible map that (if accurate and true) shows who inhabited that region when the book was written.

What nation was in charge?

How did they get there?

Based on what has been found and what Robin Walker states about that area, describe the people and their culture?

Now previously, one of the more interesting books in our library was written in 1881. What do you think that book said and what was the prevailing thought of “the negro” in 1881? Well, take a look:

Now to have in the library, fine, as it’s an interesting piece of work. But to teach, no thanks (at least not for the purposes generally recommended).

Robin Walker opens up When We Ruled by asking in chapter one, “What is Black History?” He goes on to quote the aforementioned Professor William Hansberry along with Professor Cheikh Anta Diop, the great Senegalese scholar to narrow our focus and begin to break of the hardened ground in our minds. Then the chapter flies over North Africa, West Africa, Ethiopia, Southern Africa and the East African Coast, proving that pyramids, royal palaces, and many other great massive structures were built on the continent that remain to this day but is rarely seen. Why are they not seen and why are they not tourists attractions like the structures in Rome, Paris, and Greece?

I learned that the Sudan has more pyramids than any other country on earth – even more than Egypt!

When We Ruled is filled with many different diagrams, maps and photos throughout the 700+pages. So can find many various avenues to turn down to begin exploration on other historical events and places.

Now the next semester is soon upon us in a couple of weeks. If you do not have your copy (feel free to order from our affiliate link below) and want to join us on this journey, now is the time! But more importantly, now is the time to for us to know the truth about our past than we know about European history. After all, the knowledge contained in When We Ruled will do me and my children far more benefit, than knowing all about Zeus, Aphrodite, and Medusa, to name just a few myths that are forever etched in my brain taking up space.

First of all, let me thank one of our followers on Facebook over in the U.K. for the recommendation to review When We Ruled by Robin Walker. I certainly hope to hear more from them as they have some great insight on homeschooling in another country!

Now, how many textbooks have you had during your school career that really changed your life? Let me tell you, When We Ruled has the power to not only change your kid’s life, but your life as well as the reader and teacher. As a college graduate, I know more about Greek Mythology, European History, non-African languages, overall more about so many other groups than my own! If knowledge was an identity test, I honestly could not call myself an African-American. But Robin Walker’s work is definitely upping my knowledge game.

So far, this book is a true textbook with over 700-pages of not just text, but photos, maps, and notes as well. When I found out that he also put together a When We RuledStudy Guide and Reading Plan, that put the icing on the cake and makes it a must have in the curriculum of a homeschooled child. Dare I say any homeschooled child, regardless of ethnicity? If science has admitted that all life originated from Africa, then why would this work be excluded? Sadly, because it is about Africa (and not fitting into the usual narrative of spear-chucking and half-naked people) and has a so-called Black author, I’m sure it would be dismissed by many and that is a sad shame.

As you can see below, the study guide assigns a certain number of pages each day along with Test Yourself Questions, to bring out the main points of each chapter. I love how Walker uses study techniques like re-reading a chapter, having students study the picture and the caption, and will even ask a question forcing the reader to understand how certain positions stand or get refuted in modern history.

Now this is just part one of a series of posts we plan to do on When We Ruled. I have discovered quite a few different ways to apply the historical lessons from this book into bible and science as well. Therefore, the knowledge gets applied and reinforced, you know, the same way it is in traditional school when you learn that the Greeks and the Romans perfected language, knowledge, teaching, philosophy, medicine, fitness, the heavenly bodies, the days of the week, religion, and the list goes on and on!

But Robin Walker forces us to ask, “was what I learned in school correct?”

And that brings me to my last point. I have read some that question the history that Robin Walker outlines. Of course, I think all things should be tested and if false, rejected regardless of the source. However, much of the criticism that I have read thus far are similar to other arguments that I have heard made about African history which basically say, “there is no way African people could have been that smart”.

In The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered, Salim Faraji speaks of the scholarly work done in the early 1900’s that debunked the narrative about Africa and the people and the racism they faced as other scholars would not accept their views (so much for the Ivory Tower being so liberal right?) William Leo Hansberry was the first academician in the United States to teach courses on African history in the 1920s, but was told by one of his mentors that, “I do not believe that Negroes founded these great civilizations. You are a brilliant student Hansberry, but you are a product of our civilization”. (The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered, pg. 25)

William Leo Hansberry – Photo source: Blackpast.org

My point? All of our lives we have been taught to never question what the Dominant Society tells us about ourselves, no matter how racist their worldview, but we will doubt knowledge from those who have no ax to grind. Or put another way, why do we always think someone else’s ice is colder?

If you are interested in any of the books mentioned in this article, click on any of the images below.

Hello everyone, I’m Reggie, the third contributor to teachthemright.me. I’m now 17 years old, and have done many things in academia that many find odd. You’ve heard from Lexi and Devin, and now it’s my turn. For my first post, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself, what I’ve done, and point out some facts about homeschooling.

Hello everyone, I am Lexi and I am 15 years old. I will be a regular contributor on teachthemright.me. For my first post I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on homeschooling misconceptions.

There are different stereotypes for parents homeschooling their children and for the child being homeschooled, but many of them are wrong. The stereotypes below are some many kids face for being homeschooled. Most of my life, I have had to combat these stereotypes and prove that they are not always true.